Loot Box Ma Epic; Plans for a Platform Marketplace

When the game started, Da Sima excitedly followed behind Xiao Dingdang.

He had figured out how to play this game: hide behind an expert and loot the death crates. Nothing could be more fun than that.

You just keep killing them, and I'll help loot them all.

Amid his excitement, Da Sima listened to the gunfire coming from the building ahead and saw Xiao Dingdang's kill notification. His heart stirred a little.

Just then, Xiao Dingdang suddenly said, "Teacher Ma, come in and help me bait them."

"Two of their teammates have me pinned down. It's hard to get out."

Hearing that, Da Sima excitedly pulled out his M416, rushed into the building, and said, "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

"Xiao Dingdang, where are you? I'm here to help."

As he spoke, Teacher Ma was already spinning and jumping around the first floor, checking for enemies.

Upstairs, Xiao Dingdang heard his footsteps and hurriedly said, "Second floor. They're by the stairs. Throw your utility first, then push with me and catch them in a pincer."

Da Sima pulled out a grenade and aimed solemnly at the wall, having already calculated where it would land.

He threw it.

The grenade arced through the air and landed hard near the side of an enemy at the second-floor entrance.

At the same time, Xiao Dingdang threw a flashbang out of the room and said, "Swing with me, Teacher Ma."

"Okay!"

Their minds as one, the two charged toward the second-floor entrance at the same time.

"Rat-a-tat-tat."

Da Sima charged up the stairs with his M416 in hand.

Suppressing fire!!!

Countless bullets poured from Da Sima's M416, the continuous gunfire sounding like a demon's low murmur in the enemy's ears.

Xiao Dingdang jumped out and quickly zeroed in on one enemy, the one Da Sima's grenade had left badly wounded.

His bullets struck the enemy, draining the rest of his health and knocking him down.

At the same time, Da Sima charged up the stairs and saw a figure jump out of a room.

He aimed his gun at the figure, pouring out the passion in his heart.

"Rat-a-tat-tat."

Bullets kept flying as a shout reached his ears.

"Teacher Ma! Teacher Ma!"

"It's me! Don't shoot me!"

Only when Da Sima heard Xiao Dingdang's voice did he realize he was shooting at him.

He stopped firing in embarrassment, but he had already drained Xiao Dingdang's health and knocked him down.

"Ahaha, um, Xiao Dingdang, sorry. I got too excited and didn't notice."

"Hehe."

Da Sima chuckled, but as he was speaking, someone jumped out of another room, aimed at him, and fired, draining Da Sima's health.

"Ah, fuck!"

"A sneak attack!"

Since they hadn't matched with any teammates, both of them fell to the ground and turned into death crates.

The viewers in the livestream burst out laughing when they saw it.

[Pfft, hahaha! I feel like Xiao Dingdang might have had a slim chance without Teacher Ma, but with Teacher Ma there, that's another story.]

[Teacher Ma went berserk. That was some truly epic gameplay.]

[There's another moment for today's clip compilation. I feel like you could make a book out of Teacher Ma's clips every day. I've even thought of a title: "Loot Box Ma Epic," modeled after the "Records of the Grand Historian."]

[The hell, a Records of the Grand Historian about Lao Ma turning into a death crate? You're a real talent, no less than Teacher Ma himself.]

[It's over. This game really is Teacher Ma's natural nemesis.]

Da Sima blushed as he read the comments in the livestream.

"Ahem, um, sorry about that, Xiao Dingdang. I got too excited just now."

Xiao Dingdang's resigned voice came over the team chat.

"It's fine, Lao Ma. You... well, your aim was pretty good."

The two then queued up for another game. They found a match the instant they clicked, showing just how many players there were.

Starfield Game Company.

Su Ye watched the game data beside Luan Le'an. When he saw the number of downloads and the playtime displayed, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It looked like PUBG hadn't failed to adapt to this environment. These numbers were simply...

Fewer than one hour and a million downloads. Those numbers were an unprecedented achievement in the entire gaming industry.

Even Minecraft hadn't been downloaded as quickly as PUBG back then.

Su Ye's tense body relaxed. He looked at Luan Le'an and said, "Open the financial backend and check the players' top-up data."

Luan Le'an brought up another backend, the Xingye Gaming Platform's financial backend. When he found the total top-ups for PUBG, his mouth fell open.

14,338,780.9 yuan.

O... over ten million!? Is this real???

And that was just the top-ups from one short hour. What about a whole day? The turnover could easily break a hundred million.

Staring at the figures in front of him, Luan Le'an had forgotten how to speak. Beside him, Su Ye narrowed his eyes and nodded in satisfaction.

These figures... meant the market had enough potential.

Previously, he had worried that players in this world might be somewhat averse to spending money on top-ups. Even Minecraft had only earned those profits because he had shared the revenue with creators.

But PUBG was different. This was pure profit, with no cuts taken by anyone else.

Sitting nearby, Su Ye looked at the data on the computer and thought for a moment before saying, "Oh, right, Designer Luan, I want to ask you something."

"Go ahead, President Su."

Luan Le'an came back to his senses and hurriedly replied.

Su Ye asked, "What if I opened a marketplace on the gaming platform? Would that be allowed?"

A gaming marketplace was a real moneymaker. With a cut from each transaction, one could imagine how much profit the market held. As long as the platform was big enough, the profits would grow accordingly, like a snowball.

But he still needed to think this over. In his previous life, this couldn't be done domestically; using money to trade in-game items wasn't compliant.

But he didn't know whether it was compliant in this world.

Luan Le'an fell silent when he heard the question. To be honest, he didn't understand these matters, but no company had done anything like this before.

After thinking for a moment, he suddenly thought of someone: Deng Jiajia, the secretary he had recruited for Su Ye.

She was a university graduate who had studied economics. Surely she knew more than he did.

"President Su, you can ask Deng Jiajia about this. She studied economics at university, so she should know about it."

Su Ye paused. Right, his secretary and assistant seemed to have studied economics.

With that thought, he turned and saw Deng Jiajia dozing in a nearby chair, then got up and walked over to her.

Deng Jiajia was dozing when she suddenly sensed something blocking her. She opened her eyes and saw her boss, Su Ye, standing in front of her.

She jolted all over and stood up, then heard him say, "Ahem, um, wipe your drool."

Deng Jiajia blushed and awkwardly wiped away the drool with her sleeve.

Only then did she ask cautiously, "P-President Su, is there something you need?"

Su Ye said, "I want to ask you something. If the company added a marketplace feature to its gaming platform, where players could use money to buy skins and things from other players, would that be compliant?"

Deng Jiajia frowned. To be honest, this was outside her knowledge too.

With no precedent, she couldn't give an immediate answer, so she said conservatively, "I'll need to look into it. I may have to ask some law students and professors at my university."

Su Ye nodded. "All right, I'll leave this to you. Look into it and ask around for me."

"There'll be a reward if you figure it out."

"Okay, President Su."